This blog intends to open windows into the Muslim mind that is cordoned off the mainstream society, to develop communication, understanding, and better relations, especially in the Northwest. It will cast light onto Muslim perspectives on issues ranging from doctrinal to sociopolitical and more.

National Geographic’s “Inside the Koran”

National Geographic is airing a documentary called “Inside the Koran” today. I was sent a link to its promotional webpage, which features a short video and a few photos. After watching the web video, I was dismayed to find that at least the web video does not address the issues that are actually discussed in the Quran. On the contrary, it showcases Muslim cultures and leaves the incorrect impression that their foundation lies in Quran’s text.

I wrote an email to National Geographic on January 6 but have not received a response yet. Here is the text of my email.

Greetings:

I am taking an effort to author this feedback for your documentary and will hope that you will take time to read my opinion, understand it, and respond to it.

I have been a big fan of the National Geographic magazine and have subscribed to it in past multiple times. However, I was appalled to see your web presentation on “Inside the Koran”. I looked at both the photos as well as the video.

I am surprised that your team did not appreciate the difference between the original text of the Quran and the behavior of the Muslims. From the web video that I saw, it seems that the focus of your presentation is the behavior of Muslims but you have titled it “Inside the Koran” instead.

To present an analogy, consider a video that shows a clause from the US constitution, such as “The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States” (Article II, Section 2). Then it shows a picture of US planes bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Japanese children dying in the aftermath. You would not agree that that is an honest service to a documentary on US constitution. Similarly, consider a showing of the images of slaves in the US during the 17th and 18th century, and then the incident of Abu Ghraib, and then narrating something like, “there have been differences in the interpretation of the US constitution across centuries”. I provide these examples to show how blatantly wrong would it be to implicate the constitution for the actions that are taken and, when questioned, defended using other clauses from the constitution.

In your web video, you talk about the Quran and then show various Muslim cultures in complete disregard to the text of the Quran or the 14-centuries of scholarly discourse has developed on the interpretation of the Quran. For instance, you show stoning, but I will invite you to show me a single verse of the Quran that talks about stoning. Similarly, I will invite you to show me a single verse in Quran that even concerns itself with how women ought to pray in the mosque. However, in your web video on “Inside the Koran”, you deal with it in detail.

I also wonder what a photo with a boy holding a toy machine gun has to do with Quran. If you were really worried about showing the true essence of the religion, you would have considered the hadith text to find out that the Prophet of Islam did not allow children to fight in the wars.

At the same time, you do not mention about the actual topics that are really undertaken in the Quran. For instance, Quran’s commandments on the rights of parents, relatives and travelers, its teachings about morals and ethics, its stress on freeing slaves in the society in which it was revealed, and generally the demand of honesty, uprightness and social goods from its believers. Instead, you show violence as if that is the sole existence of Islam and Quran!

I hope that your documentary that runs on the channel is not guilty of misleading its viewers in a similar fashion and that you have indeed done appropriate research the way National Geographic does on other topics.

To clarify, my concern is specifically about the factual accuracy of your video and the data you are making available to your audience under the title “Inside the Koran”. I look forward to hearing from you.